The euro traded at its highest level in a week Thursday, as Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen’s reluctance to discuss the central bank’s interest-rate outlook made dollar bulls nervous.

In her opening remarks to a two-day research conference sponsored by the Fed, Yellen said nothing about the possibility of an interest-rate increase at the Fed’s December policy meeting.

Yellen’s decision to sidestep specific talk about a possible interest-rate increase helped spark a bout of short-covering that pushed the euro
EURUSD, -0.7347%
higher throughout the day, said Doug Borthwick, the head of foreign exchange at Chapdelaine & Co.

“The market wants them to talk about the elephant in the room,” Borthwick said. “They’re not saying a rate hike is off the table in December, but they’re not reinforcing it.”

In its most recent policy statement, the Fed’s rate-setting committee stressed that it would need to see signs that the labor-market recovery is progressing to justify a hike at its December policy meeting.

Investors are now looking ahead to remarks from Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer, who is expected to begin speaking at 6 p.m. Eastern.

In other currency trading, the buck fell to its weakest level against the yen since Friday’s jobs report, trading at ¥122.57 late Thursday, compared with ¥122.85 late Wednesday. It also edged lower against the British pound
GBPUSD, -0.0636%

The ICE U.S. Dollar
DXY, +0.56%
a measure of the dollar’s strength against a basket of six of its rivals, declined by 0.5% to 98.5450.

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